


YouTuber, Thought Dead, Found Alive

by canufeelthemagictonight



Category: Escape the Night (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Escape the Night Spoilers, Gen, Happy Ending, Human Trafficking (mentioned), LAPD, News Media, Newspapers, Recovery, Rescue, Social Media, Society Against Evil, cover story, news report, report
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2020-10-10 07:13:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20524031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canufeelthemagictonight/pseuds/canufeelthemagictonight
Summary: LOS ANGELES, Calif. (AP)—One of the reported victims of the 2018 YouTuber massacre was found safe and well on Wednesday night, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed.A news report from the days following the end of Season 4.An Escape the Night one-shot.





	YouTuber, Thought Dead, Found Alive

**Author's Note:**

> So, that was quite a finale, huh?

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (AP)—One of the reported victims of the 2018 YouTuber massacre was found safe and well on Wednesday night, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed.

Colleen Ballinger, 32, who went missing in April of 2018 and whose remains were supposedly found in July of that same year, was discovered alive by a society that wishes to remain anonymous. The social media star was reunited with her family Thursday afternoon after a brief evaluation by the UCLA Medical Center. 

"She is completely uninjured, although understandably quite shaken up from her ordeal," said LAPD Chief of Police Michael Moore in a statement to the press. "It's a late Christmas miracle. I've never seen anything like it."

An exhumation revealed that the body thought to be Ballinger's was actually the body of an unidentified "Jane Doe" who bears a striking resemblance to the YouTuber. "We made a mistake," Moore admitted solemnly. "The sheer extent of Jane Doe's wounds prevented us from being able to properly identify her. Our department is working tirelessly to find her true identity so that we may inform her next of kin."

According to Ballinger's anonymous rescuers, the cult that carried out the 2018 massacre only killed six YouTubers, not seven. They presented Jane Doe's corpse as that of Ballinger, tricking both the survivors and the world into believing that she was dead. The real Ballinger was "sold for a few quick bucks to a human trafficking ring in Albania," explained our source. "Fortunately, she escaped before anything truly terrible happened, but unfortunately, she was trapped in France without any way to contact the rest of the world. We found her at a homeless shelter in the heart of Tirana."

The family and friends of Ballinger are overjoyed by her unexpected return.

"I thought she was dead," sobbed Ballinger's mother, Gwen Ballinger, 59. "I thought my daughter was dead, and now..." She choked up. "And now she's alive. The Lord gave her back to us. I'm more grateful than any words can say."

Erik Stocklin, 36, who was romantically linked to Ballinger a few months before her disappearance, publicly stated in a Twitter post that "Colleen is okay, thank God, but she'll need some time before she returns to social media, so please respect her privacy right now." He went on to thank everyone involved in bringing her home, concluding the post with a simple "There are heroes in this world."

Even the other survivors of the 2018 massacre expressed relief when they learned of Ballinger's rescue. "I mean, I guess in hindsight, it was kind of fishy that they didn't let us get a good look at her body," remarked Matthew Patrick, 32, "but in our defense, we were all very traumatized and ready to believe the worst. I'm glad she's back. I've missed her. I just wish..." He seemed too overcome with emotion to finish his sentence.

"Good for her," was the blunt response of Nikita Dragun, 22. "Sucks that those b*tches lied to us. Good thing they're all dead."

The third survivor, Joey Graceffa, 27, did not respond to our requests for comment.

**Author's Note:**

> Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a novel to write...


End file.
